What you need to know about the Senate plan for school funding

Republican leaders are fast-tracking a landmark overhaul of the state's current school funding formula.
Wochit

In this Oct. 23, 2014 photograph, students leave the elementary school wing at the Durant Public School in Durant, Miss. This K-12 school is one of many that have had to make tough economic cuts as the state funding formula, called the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, is continually underfunded by the state legislature.(Photo: Rogelio V. Solis/AP)

Members of the Senate Education Committee must decide by Tuesday whether they want to advance a proposal that would make sweeping changes to the way Mississippi funds its public schools.

Last month the House passed House Bill 957, which would eliminate the state’s current school funding formula, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, and phase in a new plan over the course of seven years.

The proposal, introduced by House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, starts with a building block of a base student cost of $4,800 per student and allocates additional funds for students who need extra resources such as students receiving special education services or children from low-income households.

Senate Education Chairman Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, is expected to take up a committee substitute at a Senate Education Committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday that makes changes to the original legislation.

Under the House proposal, the phase-in of the Mississippi Uniform Per Student Funding Formula would start in 2021 and finish by 2026 with most districts unable to see a loss or gain of more than 3 percent in a fiscal year.

In 2019 and 2020, districts would be held harmless, meaning school systems won’t receive funds below the amount they received for the 2018 fiscal year.

The committee substitute keeps the timeline for the phase-in of the formula the same but adds language that could allow additional funding for districts with increasing enrollment over the next two years. House leaders included an additional $8 million for high-growth districts in their K-12 funding bill.

The Senate plan also keeps the base student at $4,800 but revises the method for determining the number of low-income students enrolled in a district.

Like the House plan, the Senate’s version would use census data to calculate the percentage of students living in poverty.

The Senate version does not change a provision of the House plan that states, "all state funding under the formula must cease upon completion of high school graduation requirements."

Rep. Jay Hughes, D-Oxford, said the language would discontinue funding for high school seniors who have met all of their diploma requirements, but who are still currently enrolled in school.

Tollison, though, said the provision is targeted toward ceasing funding for students who have graduated.

"As long as they're enrolled in high school they will be given the additional weight," he said.

The Senate committee substitute, though, would use a three-year average of the school-age poverty rate from census data to determine the percentage of low-income students, rather than the current year’s rate.

As with the House plan, the Senate committee substitute keeps the 27 percent rule, which protects districts from having to kick in more than 27 percent of the formula’s total. Leaders have indicated that the local tax cap will likely be the subject of future study.